Tuesday, October 13, 2015

FG Approves N56 Billion for Development of Insurgency-Ravaged Areas

The Federal Government has released N56
billion toward rehabilitating victims and places ravaged by insurgency
in the North-Eastern part of the country.

Alhaji Muhammed Sani-Sidi, the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), announced this at the second “Safe School Initiative Leaders’’ meeting in Tehran, Iran.

This is contained in a statement, signed by Ibrahim Farinloye, the Public Information Officer of NEMA, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.

The
statement quoted Sani-Sidi as saying that the government had released
N53 billion for the Victims Support Fund (VSF) and N3 billion for the
Presidential Initiative in the North-East (PINE)

According
him, the federal government is committed to safeguarding students,
teachers and schools’ infrastructure in the country.

“The
federal government has demonstrated this with the release of N3 billion
for the Presidential Initiative in the North-East (PINE) and N53
billion for the Victims Support Fund (VSF).

“The
funds are meant to address the various emerging issues to mitigate the
effects of the fading Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria,’’ the
director-general was quoted as saying.

In
his presentation at the meeting titled an “Overview of Safe School
Initiative (SSI)’’, Sani-Sidi stated that the Safe School Initiative in
Nigeria had received $50 million as support from Nigerian government,
foreign governments and International Donor Agencies.

He
highlighted the major causes of threats to safe schooling and school
infrastructure as flood, rain/wind storm and community strifes.

“The
catastrophic Boko Haram Insurgency in the North-East has become the
single most significant threat to schooling and school
infrastructure. NEMA put the figure of displacement of people within
Nigeria at two million, while about 57,743 displaced people were
temporarily sheltered in Niger Republic, Cameroun and Chad,’’ he said.

Sani-Sidi
also revealed that 254 schools were destroyed by the Boko Haram
insurgency, while government was making efforts to assist 2069 students
affected by the destruction.

He said
that the students had been transferred from the high risk areas to 43
Federal Unity Schools (FUCs) in the North-Central, North-West and part
of North-East.

The director-general
acknowledged the contribution of the German Government, especially on
the student transfer component of Safe School Initiative.

He also acknowledged that, “United Nations Children and Education Funds (UNICEF),
in collaboration with Federal and State Ministries of Education, are
supporting education in IDPs camps through various interventions.

“Such
intervention include `School-in-a-bag’, `40 schools in a box’, and
distribution of 35, 800 school bags with learning materials. The United
States of America’ International Development contributions include
enrollment of 54,000 IDPs in Non-Formal Learning Centres and training of
394 teachers to manage the centres,” Sani-Sidi stated.

He pledged the commitment of the federal government toward continued implementation of the “Safe School Initiative’’